Manchester United’s Head of Academy, Nick Cox, has shared how the club successfully fended off strong competition from both domestic and international sides to secure Chido Obi from Arsenal last summer.
Despite Arsenal’s repeated efforts to retain Obi, he chose to leave, attracting interest from some of Europe’s top clubs.
However, it was United who came out on top in the race to land the goalscoring sensation. He slotted seamlessly into the youth ranks at Old Trafford, scoring a hat-trick within 15 minutes of his first start for the U18s.
He has managed 15 goals across U18 and U21 levels. Ruben Amorim handed Obi his senior debut in February, when he came on in the dying embers of the club’s 1-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur. He has made four senior appearances so far, and it appears to only be a matter of time before he gets his first start in a United shirt.
Cox sat down with Manchester Evening News and detailed how the swoop for Obi unfolded.
“Occasionally you get moments like this. Arsenal are a wonderful club. They deliver a great program and develop great players. For one reason or another, and it’s for Chido and his family to know why, they felt the best opportunities for him may rest away from Arsenal.”
“Because he holds a Danish passport, the whole of Europe was open to Chido. We quite simply became aware of the fact that Chido was about to make a move to Europe. He’d been to visit a club and identified the club where he was going to potentially end up. We thought if this player is available and is looking to leave, then we should make every effort we possibly can to sign him.”
“The pretty familiar formula for Manchester United’s senior and youth teams has always been having the best local players and adding some of the best talent from further afield.”
“If you look back, it’s George Best, it’s Bobby Charlton, or it’s Duncan Edwards from further afield, added to a group of local lads. Then fast forward and it’s someone like Paul Pogba.”
“We have an extensive group of talented scouts who are exceptional at looking at potential in players. We’re trying to make sure there’s a healthy pool of high-potential talent sitting beneath the first team. It was a real concerted effort to sign Chido, so there’d been a lot of work done by our recruitment team led by Luke Fedderenko, and Stephen Ajewole would have played a key role in that as well. Sam Williams too.”
Cox continued, “The coaching staff would have played a key role as well because we’re trying to present an opportunity. This is our staff, this is our history and track record of developing players. This is what the program looks like, this is the resource that would be available to you. This is how we see the club in the future.”
“We had an opportunity to meet with Chido’s family and the important people to him. We had a number of conversations that allowed us the opportunity to be the club that he chose to join.”
“He’s in a good place at the moment. There have been opportunities to train with the first team and a few opportunities from off the bench. But let’s be honest, there’s been some injuries and some disruption to the squad. The art is to just keep regularly reviewing where a player is at. You saw Kobbie [Mainoo] bounce between teams before he finally got in and Alejandro was a little bit the same, so there’s always twists and turns.”
United’s U18s are on the brink of reaching the FA Youth Cup final, with the team currently set to face Aston Villa in the semis on Monday evening.
It remains unclear whether Obi, who has struck seven goals in the competition, will play any further role in the competition, now that he has been promoted to the first team.
Asked about this, Cox answered, “He’s an eligible player for the youth team. I don’t really know if we’re going to get to a final. We’ve got a game to get through on Monday first, but let’s be honest, we’ve got lots of good players. If we got to the final, that would be over a month away. I don’t know what the next month might bring.”
Another player Cox discussed was Harry Amass. The young full-back finally made his senior United debut during the 3-0 win over Leicester City just before the international break. He came on as a replacement for Garnacho in the 69th minute of proceedings.
On Amass, Cox told MEN “I’m delighted for Harry, his family and everyone that’s worked with him, including the guys at Watford that worked with him before he came to us. We’ve talked about what an amazing landmark it is, but there’s still a long way to go.”
“He’s been in and around the first-team squad for maybe about a year, hasn’t he? I don’t pick the team, so the reasons why he wasn’t selected [before Leicester] will be valid, but that’s for the coaching staff and Harry to know the reasons, but he’s had to be patient.”
“It wasn’t as if he wasn’t disappointed. Of course you’re desperate, you want to play and get on the pitch, but I’ve been really impressed with the determination, the resilience and the persistence to keep learning. He’s spent time with the first-team and then back with the youth team. He’s kept working, kept improving and been ready for when the moment comes. As a young player, you don’t know when it’s going to come and you’ve got to be ready, which isn’t easy.”
Cox confirmed that United attempted to loan out Amass in January but they couldn’t find the right opportunity and so, a decision was made to keep him.
On Amorim and his stance on young players, Cox explained, “You’ve heard him talk about it. He takes great pride in the work he’s done away from here in terms of debuting young players and you can only measure a man by his actions. There are players in the team, in the first-team squads and there have been debuts given. You’re starting to see him put real faith in Toby Collyer.”
“He obviously has a real excitement about young players and helping them, but listen, they have to be good enough, there’s no favours or charity given. It’s exciting times for the young players.”
Cox mentioned that he has a strong relationship with Amorim and emphasised that it’s a collaborative effort, with Jason Wilcox, Darren Fletcher, and the coaching staff all playing crucial roles.
After taking over as head coach, Amorim quickly implemented his preferred 3-4-3 formation. However, adapting to the new system has been challenging for some players.
Meanwhile, the youth teams have maintained their usual formations, prompting suggestions that a tactical shift could help ease the transition to the senior set-up.
When this was put to Cox, he remarked, “It’s a collective approach to decide how the academy team is going to play, so it’s not my choice. There’s conversations between myself, Jason Wilcox, the senior coaches within the academy in terms of Trav Binnion, Dave Hughes, Adam Lawrence and Colin Little.”
“We talk about the type of football that our boys will need to experience to give them a well-rounded education, which is going to equip them for the game, not just to get them to the start line and for them to make a debut, but these boys will still be playing around 2045 and 2050.”
“I don’t know what the game is going look like in 2050, but I’m pretty sure it’s going to be quicker, more flexible, more dynamic, it’s going to require adaptable players, flexible players, players who have a game sense.”
“Our approach has to be about equipping the individuals because I’m trying to equip those individuals to be able to win a game in the future, not trying to win us a game right now. I don’t want to get too detailed, but the formation is a small sliver of the consideration. It’s more about the principles, so if you look at the teams, the principles are the same.”
“We’re trying to play a modern version of the game, which is to dominate the ball, control the game, try and play in the opposition half, and if you lose the ball, then try to win it back quickly. The formation is different, but we think that the formation pretty much translates to being dropped in at first-team level. You’ll also see boys who are slowly integrated into Ruben’s training sessions. They’ll start with recovery sessions as a small group and then maybe as individuals in a main session.”
“Ruben’s approach is to work really hard on how his team is going to play, so it’s weeks and weeks of that education before you potentially get to come on as a substitute for a debut.”
Amorim and his players are back in action on Tuesday when they face Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Kick-off is at 19:00 GMT.
Featured image Lewis Storey via Getty Images
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